Many of you must know about the incredible development in Dubai in the past several years. These Images from the NASA Earth Observatory taken from 1973 to October of this year show the artificial landmasses off the coast as clear as macaroni glued on construction paper. The developer responsible for this, Nakheel, has an interactive map of future developments.
High rises have been sprouting all across the region like weeds in a sandbox.
Some of the newest concepts may well be a group of the most definitive examples of gigantism I have seen in the skyscraper world. The Dubai Towers-Dubai (creative name for creative architecture), by Sama Dubai, is one of the most recently unveiled designs.
Of course, the biggest news is that Dubai is soon to be home to several buildings that will not only be the tallest skyscrapers in the world, but will surpass the current record holder for tallest structure in the world, the KVLY-TV mast, without batting an eye. The Al Burj, also being developed by Nakheel, will be anywhere between 750 and 1000 meters high.
It’s competitor, The Burj Dubai, yet another SOM tower for the people, has already undergone construction and will be between 705 and 950 meters, the tallest structure in the world, at least until the Al Burj is built. These towers will beat out the KVLY-TV mast by half, if they reach their maximum projected heights.
More of these needles will most definitely continue to shoot out of the Middle Eastern sand in the future, as I have seen one such “top secret” design myself when I visited Pickard Chilton earlier this fall. Jon Pickard said, “I’d love to tell you how tall it is, but then I’d have to kill you.” Unfortunately, I did not bring my ninja-cam to take photos of the model.
Before you all get penis envy from looking at all these phalluses sparkling in the desert sun, take a look at the cost of building such gigantic wonders, and check out this slide show. Good thing “the richest 2% of adults in the world own more than half of all household wealth.”
